Samba Group Project Working Description
EDU134 - Teaching ESL to Adults: A course leading to Colorado’s ABEA Certification
Red Rocks Community College, Spring 2016 (Leecy Wise, Instructor)
BY David Henderson and Sarah A. Folzenlogen
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I. Activity Topic (A Life Skills Goal) - Rent an apartment or house.
II. Description of the student population to be addressed with levels defined. (High Intermediate)
Class of 15 adult students at the High Beginning to Low Intermediate language level. Student population is roughly evenly split male/female and from diverse cultural backgrounds with 10 of the students coming from Hispanic cultures; 2 students represent the Iraqi culture; 2 students represent Bhutan; 1 student comes from China.
III. Reading and Writing skills that you will integrate into the activity.
- Students will work on their reading comprehension by reading and discussing sample rental ads, as well as a rental case study.
- Student will learn and apply new vocabulary words by completing a rental application, as well as writing a sample dialogue between a potential renter and landlord.
- Students will practice writing paragraphs by journaling about their previous rental experiences.
- Students will practice reviewing sentence structure and grammar by correcting each other's sentences from their writing samples.
IV. Description of at least two reading and writing activities taken from course resources.
1. Reading: (Discussion of Pre-existing Knowledge and Reading Tips to Improve Conversational Skills)
- Focus entire class on a website listing of available rental units. Start a discussion on the topic of finding a place to live. Ask questions to determine what students know about this topic: Who has ever done this before? What is the process like? Easy? Difficult? Time consuming? Make a list of vocabulary words that come up when renting an apartment.
- Bring in copies of a sample paper ad for available rentals. Divide the students into pairs (one of the “pairs” will consist of 3 students), give each pair a copy of the paper ad, ask each member of the pair to pick out on rental ad and read it to the other member of the pair. Each student pair discusses both ads to make sure each pair understands what is being offered and if the offering is suitable to them.
- Each pair combines with another pair (4 to 5 students total) to compare findings.
2. Writing: (Completing a rental application and renter’s agreement)
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/564/01/ - Students work together to complete a sample rental application.
3. Reading:
- http://www.elcivics.com/worksheets/reading.html -Reading a short passage or case study about someone looking for an apartment and then having students write a short dialogue between the landlord or leasing agent and renter:
Maria is looking for a place to rent while her kids are at school. She notices an “apartment for rent" sign inside the window of a bakery near her house. Maria is interested in looking at the apartment so she goes writes down the phone number and address of the leasing agency. Maria calls the leasing agency and arranges a visit to the agency office. Here is the conversation they had….
- http://www.rocketlawyer.com (scroll to the bottom of the website and click on Sitemap. On the sitemap webpage, click on Tenant Legal Center).
- Read a case study on the rights and responsibilities of renters and landlords. Study and discussion will include a summary of the legal rights of renters in the region and the responsibilities each party has in this relationship. Discussion will focus on a model lease contract with important phrases highlighted.
- Vocabulary - Students will make flashcards, using the words from the first activity, related to find an apartment or house to rent (application, resume, employer, income, security deposit, lease,…etc). To make it more effective, the words can be used to play a game of Pictionary on the whiteboard.
Writing: Students will journal about their previous experience looking for a place to live and/or dealing with the hassles of renting a place to live. They will choose sentences from their journaling to write on the board and help each other correct them as a group, focusing on sentence structure and grammar.
